"sane people" --- oxymoron. Julie Krueger ========Original Message======== Subj: [lit-ideas] Re: are we not talking anymore? Date: 7/14/06 6:44:58 P.M. Central Daylight Time From: _writeforu2@xxxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:writeforu2@xxxxxxxxxxx) To: _lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) Sent on: Ursula wrote: (Interesting that you mention trains running on time -- everything runs when, and only when, the Israelis let it run). That's true. Israel has developed into a military power. The Palestinians live next door. If you lived next door to a great military power -- also a great economic power -- who was interested in peace, not war, would you propel rockets across the border, kidnap soldiers and have your children blow themselves up in shopping malls and busy restaurants? Why? Is that to assert your desire for self-determination? It doesn't make sense if their purpose is to have an independent nation, a sovereign nation. After all, Israel has a big influence over the economy. Why not make friends with someone who can help you, your friends, your region grow and flourish? Meanwhile their children read disgusting things about Jews in their textbooks, are indoctrinated into seeing their neighbors hatefully, are encouraged to blow themselves up in crowded places, buses on the way to work, restaurants, malls. Granted, Israel could have been kinder. They haven't reached out enough. They are the more powerful of the two. When Palestinians tunneled into Israel to kill and kidnap, didn't they expect a response? Why wouldn't they expect that Israel -- like a wounded animal -- would strike back, bring the battle to their doorstep, disrupt their infrastructure. I can't imagine what life must be like in the desert in Gaza without water or electricity in this hot weather for a million-and-a-half people. Israel's response was predictable. Is this the behavior of sane people? Didn't Hamas know what Israel was likely to do? Why encourage that? This is the government that's there to help the Palestinians? With a government like that, who needs enemies? Stan Portland, ME ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ursula Stange" <Ursula@xxxxxxxxxx> To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 7:04 PM Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: are we not talking anymore? > Let's not forget that Menachem Begin also had a terrorist background. > Sometimes people rise to the occasion -- if there's any occasion to rise > to. Israel has so destroyed the infrastructure and so chopped up the > territory and so prevents normal economic commerce that no government > could bring a semblance of normality. (Interesting that you mention > trains running on time -- everything runs when, and only when, the > Israelis let it run). > Ursula > > > Stan Spiegel wrote [in part]: > >> The problem here is that Hamas was elected by the people. Hamas -- >> heretofore a terrorist organization -- is now in charge. As the >> government (not a terrorist organization), they're in charge of making >> life and the economy work for the Palestinians. See that the roads are >> safe, that trains get there on time.But as a terrorist organization >> that's not their purpose. > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, > digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html